Search Last 7 Days Death Notices

Funeral Mass & Service Readings & Formats

A collection of readings, both religious and non-religious, often incorporated into a service to remember loved ones. Please make sure that you attribute any readings, quotes or extracts you use to their authors.

The Funeral Mass

Click here to view a Funeral Mass Template, which you are free to use and print, courtesy of Fr. Pat Rogers CP, Mount Argus Church, Dublin, to whom we are very grateful. This template includes readings, hymns and more. A very comprehensive and useful tool.

The Order of Service for a Church of Ireland (CoI) funeral

This follows the Book of Common Prayer (2004) and there are different versions. Most commonly used is Funeral service 2, which you can click here to view (source: http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=worship&id=12). In this document, you can find the service format and all the other funeral services from the Book of Common Prayer.

At a Church of Ireland funeral service, usually everyone receives a copy of the prayerbook with the generic service in it and the personalised funeral booklet (optional) simply contains the hymn word and details of the readings. In general, the main difference between the Roman Catholic and the Church of Ireland funeral service is the singing. Church of Ireland funerals typically have three or four hymns and the congregation (usually led by the church choir) sing the hymns, the psalm and other parts of the scripture and conclude with the Nunc Dimitis. (Our grateful thanks to Brigitte Nelson, Co-Editor of the Dundalk Group of Parishes (CoI) Newsletter, for her contributions to this piece).

The Humanist Service

Information about humanist funerals can be found on www.humanism.ie. Humanist funerals are composed individually with the family concerned, but generally follow this pattern. Contact details of celebrants can be found on the website and all enquiries will be handled with sensitivity. (Our grateful thanks toBrian Whiteside, Director of Ceremonies - HAI, for his contributions to this piece.)